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Every search bar looks like a URL bar to users

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Re: Every search bar looks like a URL bar to users

#391

Post by fknorangesite »

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #223
JoshTriplett wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Tech-savvy people will just type "facebook.com" Tech-savvy people will type f, see that their browser completes "acebook.com", and press enter. That's a form of search, it's just more directly provided by the browser and unambiguously serving the user. (Ideally, tech-savvy people will type f and see no signs of facebook whatsoever, but that's an orthogonal issue.)

> (Ideally, tech-savvy people will type f and see no signs of facebook whatsoever, but that's an orthogonal issue.) I'm tech-savvy and I use Facebook all the time. :-P Going off-topic here, but outside of Facebook's issues with privacy, I think Facebook is a fine platform. Most of the issues people have with Facebook (again, ignoring the privacy issues) are self-inflicted. You have a racist uncle and don't want to se…

> You have a racist uncle

I didn't have a racist uncle - at least not until he started spending too much time on Facebook and reading every piece of racist garbage the algorithm fed him.

I didn't have an anti-vaxxer mom, but guess what.

Re: Every search bar looks like a URL bar to users

#392

Post by BEEdwards »

nanomonkey wrote: post #362
robocat wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If we had tentacles, door handles probably would look more different. I would love to see a virtual reality app that plays with different organism layouts, and solving the usability issues. There is a lot of great sci-fi that tries to consider how a world would be designed for non-humanoids, or mixed aliens, or the reverse archaeological problem of calculating how aliens look from what they have left behind. I am s…

"The Galaxy, and the Ground Within" by Becky Chambers (Book 4 in the Wayfarers Series) not only deals with a mixed alien usability environment, it also passes an alien Bechdel test of sorts. The whole Wayfarers series is amazing in my opinion.

"A Closed and Common Orbit", the second in the series) is my favorite book ever.

Re: Every search bar looks like a URL bar to users

#393

Post by shadowgovt »

goohle wrote: post #386
shadowgovt wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Moreover, most of the time users are just watching video, so why not to launch a video stream right after powering of the device? Why we need to confuse user with these buttons and Internet at all? I can tell you're being facetious, but you actually just described "television," and you should see the numbers on how many people buy cable instead of cutting the cord and subscribing to a handful of streaming services…

> I can tell you're being facetious, but you actually just described "television," My mom has 64" 4k TV with excellent image quality, but very often (right now, for example) she watches YouTube on her old CoreDuo PC with 24" screen, in small window. I don't know why. My search bar shows me my past searches, instead of random suggestions, while my URL bar shows my past URL's, which saves tons of time for me when I nee…

> Also, I can quickly select another specialized search engine for a search.

Chrome's unified bar currently supports that. Type a fragment of a site name and hit tab... If the site published a standard search mapping in its metadata, the bar changes modes to direct a search query to the specified website. Super useful for GitHub.

Re: Every search bar looks like a URL bar to users

#394

Post by nly »

fbelzile wrote: post #189
cletus wrote: post #145

This is a good example of making the mistake of conflating implementation details and user interface design. Firefox always had two boxes: URL bar and search. One of the big changes Chrome made when it was born was to have the Omnibar, being of course one bar that does both. If you think about this as an engineer, Firefox's design decision makes sense. You don't want to accidentally leak things to a search engine. UR…

I think a good analogy is an automatic vs manual car. Most people prefer to have one pedal for the accelerator. But you still have many car enthusiasts (web enthusiasts) that know how cars (the web) work and want to control the mechanics behind the scenes. I wish it was still an option provided to users. Google has a financial incentive for the Omnibar though. After searching for "facebook" users would click the firs…

In the UK most cars are still manual. Is this really not the case in the US?

Having a clutch gives you a lot of fine grained control

Re: Every search bar looks like a URL bar to users

#395

Post by CRConrad »

krater23 wrote: post #358
joshuamorton wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have an automatic transmission, so you don't have to know how to use the clutch (a thing people used to complain about the kids not learning)

Just US things... No one in Germany likes automatic transmission.

Oh Idunno... It's getting harder and harder to find even German cars with manual transmissions.

Re: Every search bar looks like a URL bar to users

#396

Post by ltbarcly3 »

ziggus wrote: post #40
ltbarcly3 wrote: post #17

People who don't know anything get confused, but this is going to be older people who are struggling to use computers, the people that call the Microsoft Edge icon "the internet". Generalizing that "users don't understand" from some autocomplete suggestions does not logically follow.

https://www.karger.com/Article/Fulltext/339104

Did you read the article?

The 'myths' it discusses are all absolutes along the lines of "it's impossible for old people to learn anything" or "old people hate computers and will never use them". The myths are constructed so that there is no possibility they are correct, and yet in the conclusion they still say there is some truth to them!

Anyway, "old people tend to be confused by websites significantly more than other groups" and "it's impossible to train an old person to know what search boxes are" are not remotely similar statements.

Re: Every search bar looks like a URL bar to users

#397

Post by hans-moleman »

southerntofu wrote: post #375
gmurphy wrote: post #357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I designed[1] the Chrome Omnibox, and appreciate a lot of the conjecture in this thread and other places - I wish I was as devious as many people assume we were. The short version is that while many users can differentiate, it's more a problem of WHEN they differentiate - Chrome's entire design philosophy was around speed, and the omnibox was designed so that we had a simple destination that a user could focus on whe…

How do you feel that your invention was used to harm users and empower a quasi-global monopoly on search engines for the profit of tech billionnaire psychopaths and secret services? I don't think you had to have bad intentions (just like physicists and the atom bomb), but do you think the web is better for users without search boxes or search engine choices, and with Google forcing centralized AMP proxying down every…

I don’t understand what exactly you’re mad at the guy about? He made an ultra-usable textbox… millions of people use it every day instinctively because it’s a great tool. You can’t crucify him because of your own personal qualms and completely ignore the flip side of the coin.

Re: Every search bar looks like a URL bar to users

#398

Post by godDLL »

Yeah, that really happens.

And it's not like there hasn't been enough time for a whole new generation to come up having those things around them from the start. So it's not about education.

People don't care to know the difference, even if they come up to the limits of their understanding of things. They much rather find someone with better understanding, and let them mediate.

Those people can't be helped with the tools of UX/UI. They can somewhat be aided by good IA, but that too is limited.

There will always be a portion of users that need a mediator, periodically. That's OK.

Re: Every search bar looks like a URL bar to users

#399

Post by CRConrad »

denton-scratch wrote: post #133
baktubi wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The browser has a search bar at the top of the page; Amazon has a search bar at the top of the page. Ergo it’s actually bad UX design. Thinking desktop UX if that was an “Amazon app” there would be ONE singular search bar. To make matters worse, Windows has a search bar in start (usually at the bottom); browser has a search bar (at the top); some websites have their own search bar; file explorer has its own search ba…

> The browser has a search bar at the top of the page; Amazon has a search bar at the top of the page. I assume this is deliberate. Amazon doesn't want you clicking on URLs that don't point to Amazon. A search bar that doesn't do an internet search, but looks like a browser search bar, would seem to fit the bill. I believe Amazon will fade away, once that bald guy reaches the orbit of Saturn. It's basically just an o…

Apparently you just set your preferences to not search from the URL bar.

Re: Every search bar looks like a URL bar to users

#400

Post by CRConrad »

motoboi wrote: post #225
wrs wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think I’m still doing pretty well with knowing about and even understanding new technology. The thing is, I have a harder time finding it worthwhile . Like social media that seems to have a 5 year cycle just because the younger kids don’t want to be seen using what the older kids use. Do we really need a new IM system and different way of posting short videos to friends every 5 years? So much “technology” change is…

You know you are old when you start think about younger people ways and solutions as frivolous.

You know the ancient Greeks were right about youth being dumb when you start to think about younger people's ways and solutions as frivolous.

There, FTFY. Now geroffmylawn.

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